The present invention relates to a method of coating a frozen food product, more particularly a frozen confectionery product, for example, ice cream, with a coating which may contain flavours or colourants, etc.
In a coated ice cream bar, the largest portion of the calories in a typical fat based coating comes from the fat which accounts for approximately 60% of the coating and such a coating provides about 80 calories per bar. It would be desirable to substantially reduce the amount of calories in a coated ice cream bar by producing a low calorie coating containing substantially no fat.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,752,678 claims a process for the preparation of a coated frozen confectionery product comprising the steps of:
dipping the frozen confectionery product into a thixotropic gel based on a water soluble polysaccharide to form a coating adhering to the frozen confectionery product, and PA0 allowing the coating to solidify in contact with the frozen confectionery product. PA0 dipping the frozen confectionery product into a flowable aqueous medium containing an alkali metal alginate to form a coating thereon, and PA0 spraying the coated product with an aqueous solution of a calcium salt.
The thixotropic gel may be an alginate gel containing alkali metal ions and calcium or aluminium ions. Although the coating produced by this method contains significantly fewer calories than a typical fat based coating, when the product coated is ice cream the coating tends to be rough or uneven and quickly softens and becomes slimy at room temperature.